Fluvanna County residents have some of the highest annual Social Security payments in Virginia, according to the financial planning website SmartAsset.com.

According to their calculations, annual Social Security payments average $20,602 in Fluvanna.

Goochland County residents topped the list at $21,868. For Virginia as a whole, average annual payments for Social Security recipients were $17,674.

The Social Security Administration said around 5,850 Fluvanna residents received benefits in 2016, the most recent year for which county-level data was available. That works out to about 22 percent of the county’s population.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator indicates that the required annual income for Fluvanna residents is about $20,946 after taxes.

All this means – at least in theory – that Fluvanna County is a cost-effective place to live for those on fixed incomes.